1. Please can you tell me how much the council has spent on instructing solicitors/barristers for Special Educational Needs first tier tribunals, upper tribunals and judicial reviews in each year since 2013/14.

Please break down the total by cost per case and please provide a summary of the reason for each case e.g. parent seeking council funds to cover the cost of their child's education. If possible, please provide the outcome of each case i.e. the panel/judge upheld the council's decision, the panel/judge overturned the council's decision and for each hearing please include whether the parent had legal representation or if they were a litigant in person. Please also include how many cases were settled before they went to hearing, or where one party cancelled the hearing please state whether this was the local authority or the parent.

This legal department (Shared Legal Solutions) only dealt with Wokingham Borough Council cases involving SEN Tribunals until 2016 and therefore holds no data in respect of any such cases from 2016/2017 onwards. The information for 2016/17 onwards is in the attached file.

Furthermore, there was also a change in the IT system used which means that some information is no longer accessible. However, from the information that is recorded and accessible, for the period from 2013-2016, the following information is provided:

Solicitors costs: internal solicitors, so no ‘expenditure’ incurred
Barristers costs; total costs recorded as £17,264.24 in respect of 9 cases from 2013-2016.

Case summary recorded as:-

- Advice and support for SENDIST Tribunals;
- SENDIST;
- SEND for alternative education;
- SEN Tribunal;
- SENDIST Tribunal- Appeal by Parents;
- Tribunal Appeal- Refusal by LA to undertake Statutory Assessment;
- SENDIST Appeal;
- SENDIST;
- SENDIST
- SENDIST- tribunal appeal against the LA refusal to issue an EHC Plan;
- SENDIST;
- SENDIST- Judicial Review- residential school placement;
- SENDIST- Placement dispute
- SENDIST- placement

Outcomes from 3 cases recorded as:-

- Consent order disposing of the hearing in the terms of the parties final statement;
- LA to deleted part of the EHCP and replace with document agreed by the parties;
- Jr Claim refused;

No other data accessible.